Sunday, 30 July 2006

I got a lust for life

So yesterday, in honour of my friend E's birthday, I went to the park where there was talking and water-fights and cake and silliness and fun, but I did manage to come home with a) sunburn, despite the sun cream and b) a bit of thorn lodged in my foot. Not the *best* of preparations for today's Walk for Life ....

I managed, eventually, to excavate the offending Very Small Twig (about 3mm small - it hurt though!) after I'd spent half an hour with my foot soaking, and fortunately I wasn't too sore this morning.

After last week's heatwave, we had bright blue skies, but noticeable breezes, and temperatures around 25c, which is hot, but not horrid, so, practically perfect weather, really. The route - starting from Prince Albert's gate, through Hyde Park down to Buckingham palace, up to Trafalgar Square, down to the river before Embankment, down the Thames to St Pauls, over the Millennium Bridge, back up the South Bank to Westminster, and then back into Hyde Park - has plenty to look at, was really well marshalled, and my co-walkers made for some interesting people watching.

Now, earlier this week, I treated myself to a teenie tiny digital camera, for a tenner, in the sure and certain knowledge that it would probably be a bit naff, but it'd be better than no camera at all. Let me put it on record, that I was wrong.

It's worse than no camera at all.

Not only does it have some combination of key presses (which is, at most, one 'hold down' rather than a 'press firmly' away from taking a photo) which deletes all the photos, it's also point blank refusing to talk to my computer and cough up the thirteen photos it *might* still have in it ....

Due to a combination of these factors, I have no evidence of the various very cute dogs, or any of the other various things I snapped.

You'll just have to believe me that there was a teenager with lime green liberty spikes, which clashed with his yellow and purple fund-raiser t-shirt [I wasn't wearing one as, by the time I checked in, they were out of adult sizes, which didn't make me that sad, because it was bright YELLOW, but it would have been nifty to be wearing it during the walk, really. ] And the short guy with his dyed black shaggy hair, and his pinstripe suit jacket, and his giant Rodhesian Ridgeback dog, which was wearing his t-shirt. And the teenage rottweiler, and the MAC crew. And that the bit of riverside path just before the Millennium Bridge was swarming with yellow shirts and yellow balloons while I was on the bridge taking photos, and that the interactive fountain outside Queen Elizabeth Hall was making the most amazing patterns of water against the pure blue sky. You'll just have to believe me. They were all pretty cool. In the fountain's case, literally.

So - yes - that wasn't a bad thing to do with my Sunday, and thanks to everyone's generosity I've raised a shade under £500 for Crusaid - I can't tell you how grateful I am for the support! THANK YOU!!!!!

Alice Tyrell is the Undergraduate Programs Librarian at the University of Notre Dame's London Centre, volunteers as a school governor, and reads for Whichbook because she is passionate about learning, reading, and exploring.